The dramatic increase in circuit density in the microcircuitry of today's electronic devices has lead to problems relating to the dissipation of heat generated in such devices. Elimination of heat from these devices is critical for it is well-known that the reliability of today's microcircuits is directly affected by the ability to dissipate the heat generated. Various devices or heat sinks are employed in today's electronic devices to assist in the dissipation of heat. Many of these heat sinks possess complex configurations in order to increase the surface area of the device and thus the heat dissipation characteristics of the device. Various attempts to assist in the dissipation of heat have been made using heat sinks formed of polymer filled material systems. Examples of such prior art material systems may be found for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,908,040 and 4,265,775. Although some of these prior art polymer systems display good thermal conductivity, they are not conducive for use in molding heat sinks or other devices of complex configuration.
The present invention provides a polymer material system that in addition to displaying excellent thermal conductivity also displays excellent molding characteristics. Thus, the polymer material system of the present invention may be used to mold heat sink devices of complex configuration.